Russian police have 4 suspects in train bombing

Nov 30, 2009, 15:04 GMT

Moscow - Russian police investigators said Monday they had located the hideout of four persons suspected in the train bombing- derailment at the weekend which killed 26 persons and injured 100.

A police spokesman was cited by the Interfax agency as saying a hideout had been found in a village not far from the scene and that in an attic the traces of four suspects had been discovered.

The hunt for the four was now underway with the help of phantom pictures, the spokesman said, in developments three days after the late-night derailment of the Nevsky Express train on the busy St. Petersburg-Moscow line.

Moscow media, citing investigators, reported that the chief suspect being sought was a former soldier from the northern Caucasus region who had defected to a group of Islamic terrorists.

While investigations were underway, an explosive device blew up on railroad tracks in the semi-autonomous northern Caucasus republic of Dagestan just before a train was to pass by. There were no injuries.

The late Friday bombing-derailment of the train was the second such attack on Russia's busiest rail route after a bombing of a Nevsky Express train in 2007. Two Chechens were arrested at the time.

One newspaper, Kommersant, said Monday that a prime suspect in both attacks was seen in former soldier Pavel Kossolapov, a follower of the top terrorist Shamil Basseyev who was killed in 2006.

Rescue officials meanwhile put the number of persons still missing from the Friday bombing at four.